Mr Cheong, a business management undergraduate at Singapore Management University, started investing at 17.

At the time, he wasn't old enough to get his own Central Depository (CDP) account, so his father signed up on his behalf and gave him $5,000 in capital to start.

"Over the last eight years, I've had my parents, relatives and friends pass me their spare cash to invest on their behalf. They saw I was passionate about it because that was all I talked about," he says.

He has received a total of about $600,000 - most of it in 2012.

"Although I was a little uncomfortable handling so much money, they told me to try and make the most of learning about investing," he adds.

"The price was $0.50 and I planned to sell once it reached $1," he says.

Fifteen months later, the price hit his target and he sold everything.

It turned out to be a premature move. At the end of last year, Riverstone's share price hit a high of $2.60.

According to a report by the National University of Singapore's Investment Society, the spike can be attributed to the crash of the Malaysian ringgit.

The report added that the company is expected to grow due to the "global ageing population", which leads to a higher demand for healthcare services and therefore, gloves for medical procedures.

Mr Cheong says: "I did a lot of research... but I didn't re-evaluate the company (and compare with my initial research) before selling it off.

"If I had checked how it had operated in the industry and how well the company did, I would have seen the potential it had to grow." According to Mr Cheong, selling early cost him a potential profit of about $260,000.

But waiting too long can also be a mistake - as Mr Cheong learnt.

In February 2014, he bought shares in MTQ Corporation for $1.60. MTQ is a local company which provides engineering solutions for oil field and industrial equipment users and manufacturers.

In June that year, oil prices started to drop. As a service provider to the oil and gas industry, the company suffered during this crash. "I was down by about 15 per cent, but I refused to sell because it was painful to 'lock in my losses'," he says.

He had hoped the share price would rebound, but he ended up losing more when he finally sold everything in August last year at $0.43.

"I never thought oil prices would drop, especially because it's a commodity," says Mr Cheong, who spent $110,000 and lost about $80,000.

But these costly mistakes have made him a better investor.

He says he got interested in investing after reading a book about value investing, an investing style adopted by American business magnate Warren Buffett, whom Mr Cheong calls his idol.

"One of my tricks is to analyse a business from an owner's perspective - studying the company's competitive advantage, its competitors and the industry in which it operates - to try and decipher how the company will survive.

"Also, I try to get a more complete picture (of the company's position) by talking to stakeholders and competitors.

"Gathering all this helps in establishing the company's pricing power and its ability to sustain abnormal returns (to shareholders) in the long run."

He did so with Straco Corporation and it paid off.

In July 2013, he bought about 600,000 units at $0.30. He has since doubled his investments in the company. The share price is now $0.79 and he plans to hang on to the stock.

"All that I've managed to accomplish, I owe to the people who believed in me and the mistakes that I've learnt from along the way."